Two teachers have been found guilty of unacceptable professional behaviour after sending sexually explicit messages to a 15-year-old girl.

A conduct panel concluded that both men had also carried out sexual activities with the girl but only one knew she was underage.

Daniel Cochrane, 38, and Andrew Green, 32, met the girl through her friend and both exchanged sexual messages with her and sent erotic photographs, the panel heard.

Daniel Cochrane, 38, and Andrew Green, 32, were both working at Lord Lawson of Beamish Academy in Birtley, Gateshead, when the exchanges happened

At the time of the exchanges, Cochrane and Green both taught at the same school – and have since set up a company together. The pair could now be facing a teaching ban.

However the girl’s mother said she felt let down ‘by both the teaching profession and the police’. She added that her daughter had become ‘unrecognisable’ after the encounters.

The National College for Teaching and Leadership (NCTL) panel in Coventry heard that the girl began messaging Green and Cochrane in 2011, but was not a student at their school.

Cochrane had taught at Lord Lawson of Beamish School in Gateshead for 11 years while Green had taught there for five. Both resigned in March 2012, and claimed they believed the girl was over 16.

However the panel said this week that it found the teenager’s evidence to be more credible than that of both men, neither of whom attended the hearing.

It also found that Cochrane engaged in a sex act with the girl in his car – knowing that she was 15. Although Green had sex with her, at the time he thought she was over 16, the panel concluded.

The girl, who is now 19 and referred to as ‘Girl A’, said that in May 2011 she had sex with Green in his house, adding: ‘I thought I loved him.’ The panel also heard she received a naked picture from Green.

The girl also exchanged sexual messages and pictures with Cochrane but they had only met once, the panel heard. She said she had performed a sex act on him in his car in May 2011.

The girl told the panel she had sex with Green in his house in May 2011 but said she ‘thought I loved him’

Melinka Berridge, presenting officer for the NCTL, said that Cochrane must have known the girl’s age because when she asked if he would be ‘dirty’, he replied ‘when you are 16’.

The girl’s mother found out about the meetings in June 2011, when she found ‘explicit’ messages on her daughter’s phone. She reported them to the police and both men were arrested.

But criminal charges against Green were dropped in 2012 after the Crown Prosecution Service decided it was not in the public interest to prosecute.

Cochrane was cleared of inciting a child to engage in a sexual activity at Durham Crown Court in January 2013, after he said he believed the girl was 17 or 18.

The mother said that the impact on her family had been ‘vast’. She added: ‘I am very cross… Girl A has been let down.’